Chaos faults for VMware
Introduction
VMware faults disrupt resources running on a vSphere / vCenter cluster. They are organized into two groups based on what is targeted: Linux guest VMs (faults that act inside the guest via VMware Tools Guest Operations) and vCenter (faults that act on the VM itself through vCenter APIs).
Linux faults require VMware Tools running on the guest and the prerequisite stress / network / DNS / HTTP binaries installed inside the VM. Go to VMware Linux binary installation to install them. vCenter faults talk directly to vCenter and are OS-agnostic. All VMware faults require a vCenter user mapped to the chaos role described in VMware permissions.
For Windows VMs hosted on vSphere, go to Chaos faults for Windows and install the Windows chaos agent on the target VM.
VMware CPU hog
Drive CPU utilization to a configurable percentage across a configurable number of cores on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.
VMware memory hog
Consume a configurable amount of RAM on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration so you can test how the workload behaves when memory headroom shrinks.
VMware IO stress
Drive disk IO load on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration so you can test how the workload behaves when storage throughput is saturated.
VMware network latency
Add latency to egress traffic from a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration. Scope by destination IP, hostname, or port.
VMware network loss
Drop a configurable percentage of egress packets from a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.
VMware network rate limit
Cap egress bandwidth on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.
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VMware CPU hog
VMware CPU hog drives CPU utilization to a configurable percentage across a configurable number of cores on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload on a vSphere VM behaves when compute headroom shrinks: whether latency stays inside the SLA, whether vSphere DRS migrates the VM, and whether monitoring detects CPU saturation within the alerting SLA.
VMware memory hog
VMware memory hog consumes a configurable amount of RAM on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when memory headroom shrinks: whether the OOM killer fires on the right process, whether GC-heavy applications pause, and whether monitoring detects the saturation within the alerting SLA.
VMware IO stress
VMware IO stress drives disk IO load on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when storage throughput saturates: whether IO latency stays inside the SLA, whether databases queue writes correctly, and whether vSphere DRS reacts to datastore latency.
VMware network latency
VMware network latency adds latency to egress traffic from a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration. Scope by destination IP, hostname, or port.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when a downstream dependency becomes slow: whether retries and timeouts work, whether circuit breakers open correctly, and whether monitoring detects the regression within the alerting SLA.
VMware network loss
VMware network loss drops a configurable percentage of egress packets from a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration. Scope by destination IP, hostname, or port.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when packet loss spikes: whether TCP retransmits stay within the SLA, whether application-layer retries recover correctly, and whether cluster membership stays healthy.
VMware network rate limit
VMware network rate limit caps egress bandwidth on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when bandwidth is constrained: whether streaming or transfer workloads degrade gracefully, whether retries amplify the slowdown, and whether monitoring detects the regression.
VMware DNS chaos
VMware DNS chaos forces DNS resolution failures for specific hostnames on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when DNS resolution fails for a specific dependency: whether the caller retries correctly, whether circuit breakers trip, and whether monitoring detects the regression.
VMware HTTP latency
VMware HTTP latency injects HTTP response latency at a target service running on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how callers behave when a service slows down: whether the caller honours its timeout, whether circuit breakers trip, and whether retries amplify load.
VMware HTTP reset peer
VMware HTTP reset peer resets TCP connections to an HTTP service running on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how callers behave when a service rudely drops connections: whether the caller distinguishes connection reset from clean response, whether retries kick in, and whether circuit breakers trip.
VMware HTTP response modify
VMware HTTP response modify rewrites HTTP responses (status code, body, headers) from a service running on a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how callers behave when responses are corrupted: whether the caller honours error semantics, whether body parsing handles unexpected payloads gracefully, and whether monitoring detects the regression.
VMware process kill
VMware process kill terminates one or more processes by PID inside a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when a critical process is killed: whether the supervisor restarts it inside the SLA, whether replicas absorb the load, and whether monitoring detects the regression.
VMware service stop
VMware service stop stops one or more systemd services inside a Linux VMware VM for a configurable duration.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when a managed service is down: whether dependent services degrade gracefully, whether load balancers route around the outage, and whether monitoring detects the regression.
VMware VM poweroff
VMware VM poweroff (by Managed Object ID) powers off one or more VMware VMs for a configurable duration, then powers them back on.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when a VM disappears: whether replicas absorb the load, whether DNS / load-balancer health checks remove the VM cleanly, and whether monitoring detects the outage.
VMware VM poweroff by name
VMware VM poweroff by name powers off one or more VMware VMs (identified by name) for a configurable duration, then powers them back on. Use this variant when working with VM names is more convenient than tracking MOIDs.Details
Use cases
Test how a workload behaves when a VM disappears: whether replicas absorb the load, whether DNS / load-balancer health checks remove the VM cleanly, and whether monitoring detects the outage.